November 14: Of our Father’s Discipline

Ezekiel 29:1-30:26

Hebrews 11:32-12:13

Psalm 112:1-10

Proverbs 27:17

Discipline is hard.  As difficult as I remember it when I was a kid (and yes, my parents were great disciplinarians, and I will forever be grateful to them for that) it is even harder as an adult.  As a kid, my parents told me what I did wrong, and what they were trying to teach me.  They administered the discipline, and whether it was a smack on the bottom or being grounded for a week, you knew when it was going to end. 

As adults, it's different.  Be it the coronavirus, or employment issues, or problems with your spouse or with your kids, or any other such thing, we know God permits these things for our good.  They are HIs discipline.  But two things worth noting: first, we may not know what God is trying to teach us.  And second, we don't know how long the discipline is going to last.  Faced with that,  one is prone to fall into despair, to give up.  To fall into depression, to leave a marriage, to end a life even.  How do we respond?

1. We could start by remembering others have survived worse.  Because in our struggle to sin, we "have not yet resisted to the point of shedding [our] blood.  
2. We can try to capture encouragement by reminding ourselves that this is given by Someone who loves us unfathomably…"because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.
3. We can remember, as the psalmist says, that "those who fear the Lord" - those who know Him - are "blessed" and "find great delight in His commands" - even the difficult ones.  
4. And we can cling to Paul's acknowledgement that "no discipline seems pleasant…but painful", and his promise that "it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Discipline isn't easy.  But perhaps we might cry out to God for the faith we need to endure, to persist, to testify to God's love "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses".  Let us cry out for the strength to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles."  And to run the race to the finish, where Jesus waits. 

Father, discipline isn't easy, and it seems to get harder the older we get.  Give us patience, fortitude and strength to persevere, and submission to be transformed, so that we come to You at the finish line, and don't give up early.